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Description

When making a ServiceDesk advanced ticket, there are fields for the user's Department, Location*, Equipment and the Equipment's Services. These refer to CMDB Solution data found in the Symantec Management Platform Console that must be set up first before they can later be used in ServiceDesk. These are known as associations in CMDB Solution.

* The Location field is also an actual field in ServiceDesk for its users. This is not imported from Active Directory in the ServiceDesk Active Directory sync as there is no out of the box Location field in Active Directory. If this field is manually populated, and no Location field has been assigned to the user in CMDB, this field will then be entered automatically when selecting a primary contact in an advanced ticket. It is recommended, however, that the location be populated in CMDB Solution for the users there instead of doing this in for ServiceDesk's users.

The following instructions describe how to verify and configure users and equipment and their associations in the Symantec Management Platform Console using CMDB Solution. Once these are set up to the customer's expectations, allow fifteen minutes to pass before these can be used in ServiceDesk. Depending on what's needed, some of the following instruction sections can be skipped by the customer.

How to verify if users exist in CMDB Solution

Users must exist in CMDB Solution exactly as they are found in ServiceDesk.

In the Symantec Management Platform Console, click on the Manage button > Assets.

Once users exist as they are found in ServiceDesk, departments and locations can then be associated to them.

How to verify if equipment exists in CMDB Solution

Equipment must exist in CMDB Solution before it can be associated to users or have services. In CMDB Solution, equipment is known as configuration items or assets, which can be a wide variety of hardware, such as computers or monitors.

In the Symantec Management Platform Console, click on the Manage button > Assets.

Click on Manage Configuration Items. Select what to verify, such as computers under Computers and Peripherals > Computer. If the expected equipment is not present, these can be brought in by a variety of ways. For example, a Microsoft Active Directory Import or Network Discovery can automatically populate computers. A Data Connector import rule can also populate equipment, but this would require that the customer have a list of assets that they want to import in first.

Once equipment exists as expected, asset owners and services can then be associated to them.

How to verify if departments, locations and services exist in CMDB Solution

Once users and equipment have been verified, next check if departments, locations and services exist in CMDB Solution.

In the Symantec Management Platform Console, click on the Manage button > Assets.

For departments and locations, click on Organizational Types then on Departments or Locations.

If the expected asset type is not present, these can be brought in by a variety of ways, which depends on the asset type. In general, these will likely need to be populated by a Data Connector import rule that the customer would set up.

Once departments, locations and services exist as expected, these can be associated to users and equipment.

How to configure users to have an associated department or location in CMDB Solution

In the Symantec Management Platform Console, click on the Manage button > Assets.

Click on Organizational Types > User.

Select a user and edit their record.

In the User's Department or User's Location fields, click to select and associate one of the available departments or locations.

Click on the OK button.

There is no method to automatically populate a user departments or locations. In general, these will likely need to be populated by a Data Connector import rule that the customer would set up. The customer could also create a custom CMDB rule to do this, but this may be harder to configure as there would need to be a key data class tying in users and departments or locations so that their data can be normalized.

How to configure equipment to have an associated user in CMDB Solution

In the Symantec Management Platform Console, click on the Manage button > Assets.

Click on Manage Configuration Items. Select what to edit, such as computers under Computers and Peripherals > Computer.

Select an asset and edit its record.

In the Asset Owner field, click to select and associate an available user.

Click on the OK button.

There is a method to automatically populate users to computers, which is to use the CMDB task, Assign Computer's Ownership to be the Primary User, which is located under Manage > Jobs and Tasks > Service and Asset Management > CMDB. This will take the Windows primary account of the computer as reported by the Symantec Management Agent and assign this user as the Asset Owner. Otherwise, this would likely need to be populated by a Data Connector import rule that the customer would set up. The customer could also create a custom CMDB rule to do this, but this may be harder to configure as there would need to be a key data class tying in users and computers so that their data can be normalized.

How to configure equipment to have an associated service in CMDB Solution

In the Symantec Management Platform Console, click on the Manage button > Assets.

Click on Manage Configuration Items. Select what to edit, such as computers under Computers and Peripherals > Computer.

Select an asset and edit its record.

In the Provided Services field, click to select and associate an available service.

Click on the OK button.

There is no method to automatically populate services to equipment. In general, these will likely need to be populated by a Data Connector import rule that the customer would set up. The customer could also create a custom CMDB rule to do this, but this may be harder to configure as there would need to be a key data class tying in equipment and services so that their data can be normalized.

ServiceDesk Troubleshooting

If recent changes to CMDB Solution fields are not appearing in ServiceDesk, reset server extensions and then reset IIS on the ServiceDesk server. Otherwise, after IIS next refreshes automatically, these fields will be updated with their current data. For example, if a Location is removed, it may still appear in ServiceDesk until the next IIS refresh occurs. Also, if IIS has been modified to increase the amount of time that it performs an automatic check, it may be necessary to perform this procedure to force the CMDB Solution fields to be seen by ServiceDesk, even if the values have been present in CMDB Solution for some time. Likewise, if there is an issue with IIS updating correctly, or, its cache timeout has been extended, this may impact CMDB Solution data being able to be seen by ServiceDesk. Verify that the default cache timers are set correctly, which can be found by reviewing the following article:

Verify that the user that is picked for the primary contact is the same user that has populated data in CMDB Solution. Compare the NT ID (domain\username) and email address in both locations to establish if a different user was selected by accident in ServiceDesk.

If no CMDB Solution data is being found, verify that "Use CMDB7" was selected during the ServiceDesk install and that IsUsingAMS is enabled. If not, this will result in CMDB Solution data not being used in ServiceDesk.

1. In ServiceDesk, go to Admin > Data > Application Properties. 2. Click on the action button and then click on Display Definition Values, for the ServiceDeskSettings entry. Click on the action button and then on Edit Values. 3. Verify that IsUsingAMS is enabled. This is located under the Services category. If it is not enabled, click to enable it. 4. If changes were made, click on the Save button.

Run the ServiceDeskDataServices.asmx file directly on the ServiceDesk server to find what CMDB Solution data is able to be accessed.

1. Open a web browser on the ServiceDesk server. 2. Enter the following URL:

3. Select the data type to test. For example, click on SearchLocations. 4. Click on the Invoke button. 5. A new page will open with HTML code. In this, the data, for example Locations, should appear. If not, then CMDB Solution data is not able to be accessed by the ServiceDesk server.

Verify that the Notification Server that is being used by ServiceDesk for licensing is where the CMDB Solution data is stored at.

1. In Windows, click on the Start button > Altiris > Workflow Designer > Workflow Designer. 2. Click on the Plugins menu > Notification Servers Credentials. 3. Verify that the NS Server Name value is the Notification Server where CMDB Solution data is stored at. If not, either the data must be added at the other Notification Server listed, or, the ServiceDesk license must be transferred to the Notification Server that does have the data. 4. Remove and add in the correct server that has CMDB data and the ServiceDesk license as necessary. 5. If the listed server does have the CMDB Solution data, however, remove the entry anyway, and then re-add it. 6. Close the window after making any changes. Note: It may take a minute or two for the window to close. This is normal. 7. Right click on the Task Tray Application and then click on Restart Server Extensions. 8. In Windows, click on the Start button > Run. 9. Type iisreset and then click on the OK button.

Customizations to the SD.DataServices project may also result in issues even if these were working successfully earlier. If the SD.DataServices project has been customized, temporarily revert back to the out of box version to verify if the customizations are the issue. The following article describes how to backup and restore projects: